MaxDelivery Expands, Brings One-Hour Delivery to Chelsea

With news today that LicketyShip, the San Francisco-based same-day delivery service, is expanding to all major California cities, it seemed time to check on New York's own Kozmo reincarnation: MaxDelivery.

Started downtown in the spring of 2005, MaxDelivery recently announced an expansion to upper Chelsea. The company, which promises to deliver cough syrup, DVDs, ice cream, and other bodega basics to your door in an hour or less from its Tribeca warehouse, imposes a $10 minimum and a $2.95 fee for delivery. Currently, the service covers lower Manhattan up to Gramercy and Chelsea. According to founder Chris Siragusa, it plans to expand to other parts of Manhattan in 2008.

Siragusa, who learned painful lessons firsthand as CTO of the ill-fated Kozmo, is determined to avoid repeating those mistakes. "The lessons learned...are too numerous to express in an email," he said. "One of the more visible changes is the the [$2.95] delivery fee that we have, only offering free delivery above $50."

Since Kozmo burned out by delivering groceries for free and expanding too fast, it's reassuring to see MaxDelivery taking things slow. Rather than raising venture capital, Siragusa has elected to keep the company privately financed.

Sure, MaxDelivery faces plenty of competition at every corner from local delis, drugstores, and wine shops (which also often deliver--assuming it occurs to you to call them). But we still think MaxDelivery has potential. This is a big city addicted to convenience, and who isn't occasionally too lazy to make a run to the local store for a late-night snack?